Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Rock'n Horse 2.1 - Scouting Trip 1

I
have been getting ready for the Rock'n Horse 2.1. This is to be a
spring ride, because everyone bailed out on me for the Rock'n Horse 2. I
am still hoping to have a Rock'n Horse 3 in mid September.

But
the first step is to take some time to ride the route and see how it is
doing. So that is what I did. Again, everyone bailed out on me. Mostly
because they didn't want to get wet, and it did rain, but not at first.

I started out at the Cedar Falls trail head to the Iron Horse
state park. It was actually nice when I left. Maybe sprinkling a bit,
but the sun was poking through the clouds. The first three miles to
Ragnar had a number of tree falls from the recent wind and rain storms. I
tried to clear what I could, but a few were too big for my little
pocket knife to saw through. So I had to hop my bike over them.

After
that it was a pretty easy cycle, except that it began to rain a bit
harder. I was halfway across the Mine Creek trestle when I was stopped
by the snow. I was hoping the snow level was a bit higher, but that was
as far as I could ride my bike through. From there I walked about half a
mile up to the Garcia road crossing. I tried to scout along there for
some good camping sites, but the snow, steep road and heavy rain really
put a damper on that.

The ride back to Rattlesnake Lake
was easy but miserable. I was soaked to the bone. It had been a while
since I was that wet on a bike. (Ghana, I think.) Plus it was cold. By the time I got back to the car my feet were numb.

So that was the first scouting trip. I am still working on the date for the Rock'n Horse 2.1. Stay tuned for more updates.